For a change I don’t know this person.  But I got this book from Amazon when it was free, and enjoyed it, so I think it deserves mention.  In The Blood: A Genealogical Crime Mystery should entertain anyone who is interested in either genealogy, historical mysteries or cozies.  Pleasant diversion if you’re having a lazy Saturday.

COMPETENCE: In a Surprisingly Transparent Move, New Zealand Admits Unlawful Surveillance in Megaupload Case. “The development is the latest in a string of blunders related to an attempt to extradite Dotcom to the United States. The 38-year-old millionaire, who was born in Germany, is accused of orchestrating the biggest copyright infringement conspiracy in U.S. history—but authorities have so far handled the case disastrously.”

I WONDER IF WE’LL SEE A SIMILAR SERIES OF PHOTOS poking fun at distracted, incompetent mothers.

POLL: Mass. Lawyers’ Weekly readers want investigation of Elizabeth Warren’s law license problem.

CHANGE: Obama Phone Website Undergoes Radical Redesign.

MORE THOUGHTS ON “THE END OF MEN.”

KENYA SAYS it has captured the last bastion of the Al Shabab terrorist group in Somalia.

IF ROMNEY’S DOING SO TERRIBLY, HOW COME Obama and Romney are basically tied in Virginia?

JIM TREACHER DISTILLS AN ATLANTIC ARTICLE: “Interviewing people is racist.” At least until November 6.

WHY IT’S BAD that smartphones have banished boredom.

[youtube XTYELrS-lcI]

POLIWOOD TAKES ON THE MASTER: Why Critics Go Gaga for this Underwhelming Film.

A STUDENT-LOAN-TO-IPHONE PIPELINE? What Student Loans Are Really Spent On.

AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals on Toys.

COMPETENCE: State Dept Did No Threat Assessment in Benghazi Before Ambassador’s Arrival.

ADAM CAROLLA ON HARD LUCK AND HARD WORK:

HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): College Students Defaulting At Record Rate.

Give a copy of this to any high-school-age kids you know. For them, it’s not too late.

FLACKING FOR THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN at Yahoo!

REALITY, WHAT A CONCEPT: Iranian News Agency falls for Onion parody.

FAKE NEWS FROM FAKE NEWSPEOPLE AT A FAKE NETWORK: “Morning Joe” Mocks Romney For Something That Didn’t Happen. I intend to raise this against Scarborough during the 2016 campaign season.

DEM POLLSTER PAT CADDELL: MSM IS THREATENING FUTURE OF COUNTRY:

“First of all, we’ve had 9 days of lies…If a president of either party…had had a terrorist incident and gotten on an airplane [after remarks] and flown off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas, they would have been crucified…it should have been, should have been, the equivalent, for Barack Obama, of George Bush’s “flying over Katrina” moment. But nothing was said at all. Nothing will be said. […] It is [unacceptable] to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know. [The MSM] has made themselves the enemy of the American people. It is a threat to the very future of the country; we’ve crossed a new and frightening line on the slippery slope, and it needs to be talked about.”

“I have no doubt we’ll see a systematic character assassination of Pat Caddell, beginning in 3…2…1…,” the Anchoress adds.

RELATED: “Romney Must Go on Offense on Media, Middle East,” Caddell writes in a long article at Big Journalism.

FASTER, PLEASE: Reverse aging? Scientists find way to make old muscles young again. “For the first time ever, researchers have identified a crucial protein responsible for the decline of muscle repair and agility as the body ages. Upon this discovery, the scientists were able to effectively halt muscle decline in mice, giving hope to similar treatments for humans in the future. According to the study’s authors, loss of muscle strength and repair is one of the major concerns facing elderly citizens.”

UNEXPECTEDLY REDUX: To follow up on Glenn’s post earlier today on Bloomberg’s latest “Unexpectedly” moment, this time involving business activity shrinking in the US for the first time since 2009, it’s amazing how much bad economic news happens so “unexpectedly” these days, isn’t it?

But then, hasn’t everyone but the legacy media learned to “Expect the ‘Unexpectedly,'” as Jim Geraghty quipped last year?

UNDER THE NEW FREE SPEECH PARADIGM, IF ANY REPUBLICANS RESPOND VIOLENTLY, THE AUTHORITIES WILL ARREST THESE PEOPLE FOR PROVOKING THEM: Good Old Fashioned Democratic Hate Speech.

A GREAT FUTURE BEHIND US: Earlier this week, we linked to a series of Seagram’s ads that right around the conclusion of World War II and titled, perhaps portentously for a series of ads merely hawking blended Canadian whiskey, “The Men Who Planned Beyond Tomorrow.”

But as I wrote in my Insta-post, sadly, the tomorrow those ads promised us is now in the past, as Bill Whittle further explores in a heartbreaking, yet must-watch video, which begins with the final victory lap of the Space Shuttle, followed by a beaming Wernher von Braun standing next to the first stage of the Saturn V, his mightiest invention.

“Oh, that? Just some stuff I built,” as the meme making the rounds goes. Bill then mentions Boeing’s enormous late 1960s SST design, which would have dwarfed the Concorde (which also isn’t available for passenger service these days). When the Boeing project was cancelled in the early 1970s, Whittle says in the video:

I remember my dad telling me, “Once you stop going forward, you start going backwards.” I was ten or 11, but this made me worry, because it made my dad worry. But that was it though, wasn’t it? We walked on the Moon, we lost our way home the day after.

In 2010, British academic Bruce Charlton posited, “I suspect that human capability reached its peak or plateau around 1965-75 – at the time of the Apollo moon landings – and has been declining ever since:”

This may sound bizarre or just plain false, but the argument is simple. That landing of men on the moon and bringing them back alive was the supreme achievement of human capability, the most difficult problem ever solved by humans. 40 years ago we could do it – repeatedly – but since then we have not been to the moon, and I suggest the real reason we have not been to the moon since 1972 is that we cannot any longer do it. Humans have lost the capability.

Of course, the standard line is that humans stopped going to the moon only because we no longer wanted to go to the moon, or could not afford to, or something…– but I am suggesting that all this is BS, merely excuses for not doing something which we cannot do.

It is as if an eighty year old ex-professional-cyclist was to claim that the reason he had stopped competing in the Tour de France was that he had now had found better ways to spend his time and money. It may be true; but does not disguise the fact that an 80 year old could not compete in international cycling races even if he wanted to.

Is he right? Well, as Whittle notes, compared with the aerospace engineering of the 1960s, these days, we should all be worried that we’re going backwards – or at the very least just technologically spinning our wheels.

UPDATE: I’ve cross-posted this at Ed Driscoll.com, if you want to explore the topic in the comments section there.

I THINK IT’S A GOOD IDEA: A Call To Include Libertarian Candidate Gary Johnson and Green Candidate Jill Stein in the debates.